Chapter 12 - A New Voice In The Darkness

Today another year starts in Hogwarts, our children's school for witchcraft and wizardry. Alas it would prove to be different from the past years, many things had happened at the end of last year and during the summer vacations and they would be the reasons for the changes to be felt soon. Albus Dumbledore's death already crippled the wizarding world, the wise elderly wizard who held many important titles like: Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and many more. He has been our unofficial leader for decades and his murder at the hands of an undecided killer has sent our world into chaos. With the sudden return of the Dark Lord Voldemort almost three years ago who was believed to be dead for over a decade, panic swiftly spread throughout Great Britain as two sides prepared to continue a war that ended years ago.

Both sides suffered heavy casualties especially in this last year, many wizards and witches has died in the conflict between good and bad, light and dark, right and wrong. And I would like to address a few of them.

I spoke about Albus Dumbledore before, he was killed at the end of Hogwarts' last year on top of the famous Astronomy tower of the magical school. The murderer's identity remains undecided by the authorities, there were a dozen of people there at the time of the assault of the Dark Lord's followers on Hogwarts. Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape and Voldemort's inner-circle members, each of them is a suspect. Draco Malfoy was given the mission of killing Mr. Dumbledore by his lord in the summer before his 6th year in Hogwarts. After multiple failed attempts, Mr. Malfoy used the Vanishing Cabinet to give his allies, the Dark Lord's followers, a way to enter the once impenetrable school. However when he had his Headmaster wandless and injured, young Malfoy hesitated to kill the wise professor, even the jeers and encouragements of the other Death Eaters failed to give him the will to utter the words that would terminate the long and resourceful life of his own Headmaster. However his decision would remain unknown since Severus Snape, the Potion master of Hogwarts, decided to show up. It should be noted that he had no trouble passing the ward that was set by the death eaters earlier that night. He shoved his favourite student out of the way and stared coldly at the man that saved him from a life in Azkaban a decade ago. From this point it is unclear what happened, some claim that the former professor cruelly killed the Headmaster while he begged for mercy, others argue and believe it was young Malfoy who felt indignant for being dismissed in such an outrageous manner sent the spell that ended the Headmaster's life. However a small group of wizards are adamant that it was Mr. Harry Potter who lashed out at his mentor, resulting his death.

The accusation of the late Mr. Potter has caused an uproar in the magical world, many rose immediately in his defence and that surprises me. In my previous articles I have spoken about young Potter's adventures throughout his Hogwarts years, as best as I could from my sources. In the end of his 4th year at Hogwarts, he was an unwilling witness and participant of the Dark Lord's resurrection. Again it should be noted that moment was the start of Rita Skeeter's famous onslaught through her articles about him, calling him an arrogant attention seeking individual. After escaping his first duel with the feared Dark Lord, Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts using the Triwizard cup which was a portkey with the corpse of the supposedly dead Cedric Diggory. He claimed it was Voldemort who returned from the dead who killed young Diggory, however the late Minister Cornelius Fudge refused to believe the young student. He was afraid of the chaos the announcement would cause, preferring to ignore Potter's adamant statements that were supported by his Headmaster.

I have already spoken about the 5th and 6th years of the late Harry Potter. A full year of bad press, Dolores Umbridge's reign of Hogwarts and then his godfather's death. As we all were told, Sirius Black betrayed his best friends, the Potters, and was the reason for their death. On the following morning after that night he hunted down his friend Peter Pettigrew and put a new meaning to destroying someone, leaving a mere finger of his friend and dozens of muggle corpses and was shipped right away to the infamous magical prison Azkaban while our world was still settling back to normalcy after the war. Twelve years later, he was the first to be recorded as successful in escaping the legendary Azkaban prison. Everyone was so sure that he wanted to kill Harry Potter, the last of the Potters, but when he was rescued from execution by an unknown individual, questions were raised. For the next two years, he was believed to be on the run and was accused to be responsible of the death eater's breakout from Azkaban(1995). However he made an appearance at what later was named: "The Battle of DoM(Department of Mysteries)".

It was the end of his 5th year, Potter and five of his friends had left Hogwarts for an unknown reason and somehow made their way to the Department of Mysteries. The six students made their way to the Hall of the Prophecies and were ambushed by a dozen of the Dark Lord's followers, Lucius Malfoy(Who the previous Minister Fudge had trusted completely and highly treasured his opinions) was leading the group and demanded the prophecy that Mr. Potter was holding. I found that detail interesting, Potter walked right towards the shelf that was the placement of a prophecy that was made by one of the remaining true seers in Britain about himself and Voldemort. When Potter refused to surrender the prophecy a violent conflict erupted between the two groups. The six students were able to hold on their own for quite a time, showing obviously higher skills than standard fifteen years old students. In their desperate attempts to escape, the six teens reached the Veil of Death, one of the most ancient and mysterious artefacts that the Department of Mysteries was able to prevent its consumption by the trials of time. They were surrounded and Potter was forced to surrender the orb that contained the precious prophecy when his friends were threatened. Fortunately, before the orb could settle in Lucius Malfoy's hand the Order of the Phoenix arrived and engaged the surprised death eaters. Many notable members arrived that night: The former auror and Hogwarts professor(If being trapped in a trunk and used as a supply for Polyjuice potion for an imposter counts for being a teacher) Alastor Moody, The late Auror Kingsley Shacklebot, The Hogwarts professor Remus Lupin and surprisingly Sirius Black. The orb was smashed in the chaos and the Dark Lord's followers were enraged by that.

After a few short minutes of fight the climax of the battle arrived, Sirius Black was hurled towards the Veil of Death by his mad cousin Bellatrix Lestrange after insulting her. Some believe that moment was the start of Potter's downfall. The grief-stricken Potter raced after her as she cackled about her victory, in his blinded rage he cast the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse on her that stopped Bellatrix on her tracks. She was however able to escape when her master arrived, once again it is uncertain what happened from that point. From what I was able to gather, Voldemort and Potter exchanged harsh words before the latter challenged the Dark Lord to cast a killing curse at him. He of course complied and sent the sickly green curse at the confident teen, however Potter didn't even try to dodge or block in some way the deadly spell, he just stood there with a smirk planted on his young face. Fortunately, or not quite so, we were not able to test the myth of Harry Potter's immunity to the killing curse, since Albus Dumbledore arrived just in time to drop a pillar between Potter and the deadly curse. Some speculate that Dumbledore's arrival was too well-timed that it couldn't be a coincidence, if so, perhaps the two planned it to make the Dark Lord weary of Potter's lack of fear of death. A short epic battle has transpired between the two legendary wizards, when the Dark Lord saw that the old wizard's power matched his own he tried to gain control of Potter's body by using Legilimency. Surprisingly, the young teen was able to defend his fragile mind and expel the feared Voldemort from him. Somewhere at that moment the Minister and many officials, who were very vocal at their denial that the Dark Lord has returned, arrived to the atrium where the battle of wills was at its peak. They could do nothing but gape wordlessly at the dark wizard as he vanished with his usual sinister style, the Minister of course had no choice but admit that he was wrong.

Later that night, a heated argument broke between Potter and the Headmaster in his office. The cause and details of it are unknown since the only witnesses were the former Headmasters' portraits and they are unable to spread around information about the current Headmaster's business. However it is known that Potter has broken a few of Dumbledore's private possessions before angrily storming out of his office, no known demands for replacement were made.

Returning to the faithful night the elderly Headmaster lost his life, earlier Potter and the Headmaster headed out somewhere. Details are once again uncertain, but there is believable evidence and testimonies that Dumbledore spent considerable time away from the castle in some mysterious trips throughout the year. From what I was able to gather from the many information pieces, true and false, is that the duo apparated to Hogsmeade, Potter supporting his mentor who looked exhausted. They ran into Madame Rosmerta, the landlady of the famous pub "The Three Broomsticks", what they didn't know however, was that she was under the imperious curse, Draco Malfoy is a big suspect for being the caster. After being informed of the death eaters' infiltration of Hogwarts, they flew directly to the Astronomy tower with two brooms they acquired from the bewitched innkeeper.

The period of time between the landing of the pair and Malfoy's panicked arrival was very short and is most likely the most important detail in that night, a detail that we don't have the luxury of knowing. In those few seconds a lot of things could've happened: If the claims are true, Potter could've made sure that Dumbledore couldn't defend himself from the death eaters before hiding himself, or Dumbledore could've put Potter under some spell that made him invisible yet unable to move, or(which is a theory that been raised and surprisingly gained support from a great number of wizards) the two changed places and appearances, Potter died instead of his mentor and it was Dumbledore who led the previously hidden forces to counter Voldemort's attack, dying heroically in a duel against the feared Dark Lord. I found that theory hilarious, yet strangely I was unable to completely dismiss it.

Young Malfoy had Dumbledore in his mercy, the elderly Headmaster was disarmed and tired, however he hesitated. A discussion had developed between the pair, the elderly Headmaster tried to convince the young death eater to rethink his decision of joining the Dark Lord's army while Malfoy claimed that it was Dumbledore's fault and that he could've prevented it if he wasn't so busy with the golden boy Potter, it is a known fact that young Malfoy and Potter were bitter school-rivals.

However they were distracted from their fascinating argument by the arrival of the dozen death eaters. They, of course, started cheering when they saw the champion of the light at the mercy of one of their own. But, Draco was unable to kill the elder wizard, that did not go well with his fellows. Their shouts of encouragement and jeers filled the chilly air of the dark night, yet the teen was unable to utter the phrase that would end Dumbledore's life. Help came in the form of the dark Severus Snape, Hogwarts' Potions master that has been always defended by Dumbledore when it came to what side he belonged in the war. One of the three possible events happened next, resulting Albus Dumbledore's death.

The death eaters made a quick retreat from the school after that, their way of success to infiltrate 'one of the safest places in Great Britain' remains classified.

Harry Potter disappeared from the Weasleys' house a few months later, leaving some kind of message to his friends. However young Potter was not able to enjoy the sweet life on the run, 24 hours didn't even pass from Potter's disappearance when the Dark Lord's army launched a surprise attack on the Ministry.

They were quickly overwhelmed by the attack from every side possible, many betrayals were discovered when the Aurors and Ministry personnel were attacked from behind by their own friends and co-workers. The situation seemed hopeless since there was no way to send a plea for help.

Fortunately help did came, no matter how unexpected it was. Eye-witnesses claimed that a group of near a hundred wizards and witches in strange silver armour and helmets appeared out of nowhere, Potter seemed to be the leader as he started issuing orders to his group on the moment of the arrival, Sirius Black and Cedric Diggory surprisingly were members of the oddly organized team.

Almost all of the members carried guns, a muggle weapon that shoots small deadly pieces of metal, it should be noted that the guns were military grade issues, the conclusion from that is not pleasant either way. Another interesting fact about 'The Lightning in the Dark' was that there were quite a few squib members in it.

While his group started engaging the death eaters, Potter made his way to the English and French Ministers, after a quick discussion the teen started fighting the death eaters as well. They used many military formations, hinting of a talented tactician in their ranks, most of the death eaters forces were eradicated quickly. In the end, Augustus Rookwood, the leading death eater who was incidentally an unspeakable, challenged Potter in a duel as a last act of desperation. Their fight was short yet impressive, Potter showed quite an amazing skill at spell casting for an wizard his age and was able to kill Rookwood with some fancy magical fire handling.

I could confidently say that by now the average reader would be overwhelmed by so much information, therefore I would spare you all the little details that you could find in the official report.

In summary, Potter, his order, the Minister and all the personnel who were willing to fight made their way to the 2nd level where they met Director Bones as well as the Order of the Phoenix, after laying out the battle plan they marched down to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures(4th level). They were attacked by the death eaters and the battle began, it included numerous tactics, ambushes and finally dementors that were destroyed by Potter.

Only then Lord Voldemort had the grace to show up, after exchanging a few insults they dove into the most impressive duel in a long time since Dumbledore's with the Dark Lord Grindlewald. Even though Harry Potter lost in the end, dying in his defeat, many agree it was obvious that he was stronger than the Dark Lord, reasons for his hesitation are unknown for the moment. Voldemort escaped a moment later when he and his forces were swarmed by hundreds of enraged wizards and witches.

If you expected this article to be one of the numerous that went to describe in many heart-wrenching details the slow corruption of young, innocent Potter by the evil order, 'The Lightning in the Dark', that was founded by the villain Silver Guardian that challenged Merlin himself, you would be disappointed. I refuse to build up an opinion without enough information, unlike others, warrants were released for any member of the order, to be brought for interrogation immediately on spot.

I believe that I droned on quite enough. Stay safe, even though it seems as if the war is over, remember that Voldemort and the death eaters are still out there. Let us not forget the efforts wizards like Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, Kinsley Shacklebot and many more put to keep our world safe.

Truly yours,
The Vox Broker.

Hermione sighed as she finished rereading the confusing article for the 7th time, unable to comprehend how this 'Vox Broker' was able to obtain the information that was supposed to be classified. Unless Ron has been interviewed in the last couple months(which she asked him multiple times), there was no way for that reporter to know about Harry's life and their adventures in such detail.

She leaned back to the comfortable arm-chair of the Gryffindor common room and closed her tired eyes. Today was exhausting for her, the ride to Hogwarts, the endless questions from her classmates, Neville attacking Theodore Nott after he insulted Harry, the feast, the toast in honour of Harry and Professor Dumbledore and even more questions from her classmates.

It felt strange being in Hogwarts without Harry, his warm presence has always made her feel safe even in these dark times. Hermione could clearly see that his death affected their other friends as well. Ron seemed to be slightly lost without his best mate, Ginny's eyes were always red and weary, Luna had trouble keeping her optimistic and dreamy mood and Neville reminded her of Harry in their 5th year at Hogwarts.

Hermione herself didn't know how to feel about her best friend's death. At first she felt betrayed because he didn't tell them about his secrets before leaving. But, it didn't take her a long time to reluctantly admit that it was better that way.

On the night when Voldemort's army attacked the Ministry, she was ready to fight the death eaters and find Harry who was already there. However, when they arrived there, she froze from the sight of many corpses and blood that was a dominating attribute on the battlefield. Before she was even able to shake herself out of the daze, the battle was already over. A group of 30 vampires appeared and dealt with the death eaters who outnumbered them tremendously.

Their leader introduced himself as Dmitry, he was a member of an order that was led by Harry. Before anyone of them could react from those news, the vampire leader was already talking with Harry using a device that looked like a modern muggle communicator. After a few moments of conversation, Dmitry handed another communicator that he produced from one of the many pockets of his robes to Professor McGonagall with a brief explanation of how to use it. After a few minutes of intense conversation, the Professor informed them that they are gathering in the 2nd floor, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

The group of vampires bade them goodbye, the Order of the Phoenix as well as the spare aurors and volunteers made their way to the 2nd level, tension filled the air.

The sight that greeted them was not what they expected. Hundreds of wizards witches were stacked in the expanded chamber. Some were whispering nervously between themselves, Professor McGonagall made her way to the raised platform where she was greeted by Director Bones, Umbridge and some undefined auror and was drawn into a whispered conversation with them. The others were discouraged by the fact that Harry was not there but they made their way to the crowd recognising many faces and talking quietly.

Silence descended on the chamber when Harry, the English and French Ministers and another wizard appeared, they were followed by shockingly Sirius and Cedric who led armour clad people and Ministry personnel. The quartet advanced to the raised platform in a quick pace, they were engaged in a heated conversation with the welcoming party the moment they stepped on it. To Hermione's observant eyes, it seemed that the other were trying to convince Harry to do something he was very reluctant to do. However they were successful when Harry sighed in a very familiar way before turning towards the crowd who has gone silent by that time.

It was the first time Hermione saw him since his 'escape' from the Burrow, he looked the same yet different. His face was set in a serious expression yet it was unable to completely hide the stress behind his façade, however his eyes shone with the familiar stubborn flame.

When he started speaking, Hermione was struck by a strong feeling of déjà vu. She could see the 15 years old Harry standing before his classmates, trying to convince them to join the studying group that eventually developed into the D.A., Dumbledore's Army. His eyes shining with determination, his posture tense in defiance, his words loud and filled with a hidden threat to anyone who would dare to challenge them. How simple it was back then, an invisible threat that was ignored by everyone, only a little group of Hogwarts students actually preparing to fight against it. How quickly things has changed, now she could only nostalgically remember the life she had less than three years ago. They were young and hopeful, determined to train and come out as heroes after defeating the death eaters single handily.

That night has erased any evidence of such thoughts. The stench of death and despair was too strong to be ignored, no positive though or emotion could dispel the suffocating bubble of fear and grief they were trapped in, no one but one man. In less than five minutes, Harry was able to raise the morale of everyone in the chamber and make them believe they could actually do it.

He laid the battle plan in front of them, it was simple. They would divide into three groups, one which was led by Harry would enter the 4th level from the elevators and serve as a distraction for the death eaters. Meanwhile, the two other groups which were led by Professor McGonagall and Director Bones would use the two conveniently hidden tunnels to ambush the unsuspecting death eaters. It backfired on them, they broke through the walls exactly the moment the death eaters deployed their own ambush, the following confusion claimed many lives. It was a blur for her after that: The battle, the dementors and then Voldemort arriving.

Harry charged right away at the feared Dark Lord, leaving Hermione in awe at his power, and then in grief as he lay there peacefully, dead.

The revelations after that were understandably shocking, but unlike 95% of the witness' that day she didn't believe that the 'Lightning in the Dark' was an order of evil wizards. Dark? Yes but not evil. Hermione smiled tiredly, she could only thank Harry for opening her eyes, making her realise how blind she was and the magical world still is. After seeing Harry's memories she sank into deep thoughts, she was shocked at how much she was unable to see. She replayed many memories of the past in her mind and was able to draw a startling conclusion: She had no future in the wizarding world. The world she was thrust into at the age of 11 was full of prejudice and tradition. It would be unable to accept drastic changes into a more modern world no matter how hard she tried, and in the end what right did she have to change a world so different from its parallel one? The Weasleys' reaction to the information about the order was a perfect example of it, went into a long and painful rant blaming a lot of innocent people for Harry's death. Hermione was easily able to see that the other members of the Weasley wholeheartly agreed with her.

She yawned and looked at the clock, it was well after midnight, she gathered her things and slowly made her way to the dormitories. Her head was filled with many thoughts, but she'll leave them for tomorrow.

With a content sigh she fell on her bed, asleep before her head hit the pillow.

REVIEW!